We will miss El Chapo: he was easy to blame for our drug war failures

January 12, 2016The Guardian

Peter Andreas addresses the familiarity of El Chapo to the international drug trade, and how his capture will leave the public looking for someone new to blame. "Having a drug lord like El Chapo to point a finger at for America’s growing heroin problem makes it easier to gloss over the fact that there are actually far more prescription opioid overdoses than heroin overdoses; and even though four out of five heroin users in the US reportedly began by using prescription opioids, El Chapo, not big pharma, grabs our attention."